Oswaldo Arcia was signed out of Venezuela as a 16 year old in 2007. He started his professional career in 2008 as a 17 year old in the Domincan Summer League. He has since played in the Gulf Coast League (2009), Appalachian League (2010), Midwest League (2011) and Florida State League (2011-12). He has struggled with injuries the past year, but is a consistent name in the lineup this year for Ft. Myers.

Baseball America ranked him #18 Twins prospect after 2009 season, #9 prospect after 2010 season and most recently after the 2011 season ranked him #5 after Miguel Sano, Joe Benson, Eddie Rosario, and Aaron Hicks. He was also ranked the Appalachian League #3 prospect in 2012 and the Florida State League #15 prospect in 2011. In the 2012 Prospect Handbook John Manuel had this to say about Arcia:

Though Arcia has yet to get past Class A, Minnesota has protected him on its 40-man roster because he has one of the system's most potent bats. He won Appalachian League MVP honors in 2010 after hitting .375/.424/.672 to top the circuit in all three categories. He hurt his right elbow last year, limiting him to DH duty in April and requiring surgery that sidelined him for two months, but he held his own at Fort Myers once he returned. With a lefthanded stance that evokes Bob Abreu, he has the strength and bat speed to make hard contact to all fields. He has plus raw power and doesn't need to square balls up to drive them. Unlike Abreu, Arcia doesn't dra a lot of walks. He has slowed down as he has gotten bigger and stronger, necessitating a move from center field to right. He regained his plus arm strength after the surgery and remains raw defensively. Arcia is pushing his way into Minnesota's big league picture sooner than later. For 2012, Arcia will start back at Fort Myeres and make his way to Double-A at some point.

Baseball Prospectus's Kevin Goldstein also ranked him #5 in the system after the same four players BA had (Sano, Rosario, Benson, Hicks). Here is Goldstein's recap of Arcia:Tools Profile: His plus hit and power tools trump his other weaknesses.

Year in Review: This young Venezuelan was off to a tremendous start at Low-A Beloit, but he was slowed in the second half as he recovered from elbow surgery.

The Good: Arcia is among the best pure hitters in the system. He has bat speed and a good feel for contact, to go with above-average power. He's not special in the outfield, but hardly a liability, and his arm strength is expected to return to average status.

The Bad: Arcia has a roundish build and isn't especially athletic. He's a below-average runner and doesn’t have enough arm for right field, so he'll need to hit. He's very aggressive at the plate, especially early in the count, and needs to work on his on-base skills.

Ephemera: All five of Arcia's Midwest League home runs came at home, where he hit .383/.442/.787 in 12 games.

Perfect World Projection: He could be an everyday corner outfielder who hits in the middle of the lineup.

Fantasy Impact: He could be a slugger who delivers in both the average and power categories.

Path to the Big Leagues: Arcia is young enough that returning to High-A to begin 2012 doesn't affect his development.

Per the Adopt-a-Prospect requirements I will be updating at least once a week on Arcia's progress both statistically and what I've seen on the interwebs, twitter machine, podcasts, etc. He is obviously a bright young star in the system. He is in a crowded group of young Outfield prospects, and needs to set himself apart, though his 2012 numbers are showing some difficulties with that. As Goldstein and BA mentioned, he will likely rise through the system quickly, but needs to turn things around before getting the call to New Britain

Oswaldo Arcia had a good night at the plate tonight for Ft. Myers playing against Palm Beach.
He goes 3-4 with a Triple and a run.
After starting the season batting .182 with 2 XBH (1 2B, 1 3B), 1 Run, 1 RBI, 16 SO and 6 walks in the first 9 games, he has picked it up in the last 10. He has hit .342 with 5 XBH (2 2B, 2 3B, 1 HR) 4 R, 3 RBI and 9 strikeouts to 2 walks. Still definitely could work on his plate discipline, but as the scouting report from BA said, he has struggled with that early on in his career. If he has a good month of May, I could see him being promoted to New Britain sometime in June. He needs to stay healthy and continue to hit, and then that outfield could have Hicks and Arcia in it.

Arcia the last two games is starting to heat up going 4-9, 1 2B, 1 HR, 4 RBI, 0 BB, 1 SO.

His last 10 he's hitting .357/.378/.619 and a .997 OPS.

His May OPS is .991 compared to his .713 OPS in April.

In yesterday's Future Shock on Baseball Prospectus, Kevin Goldstein mentioned Arcia and said this about his recent performance:Oswaldo Arcia, OF, Twins (High-A Ft. Myers): 3-for-5, 2B, 2 RBI. .972 OPS in May and .304/.360/.472 overall. Needs to hit as other tools are a bit flat.

Continue to hit like this, and he should be promoted to New Britain in the 2nd half.

Quick update on Mr. Arcia:
Still in Hi A Fort Myers. On 5/27 he went 3-3 with a HR (4th), 1 RBI, 1 Run, 1 BB.
Past 10 games he has hit .282/.333/.538 for a .872 OPS. He has 2 HR, 4 2B, 7 RBI, 5 R and 3/7 BB/K ratio.
Likely to stick at Ft. Myers until at least the All-Star break. With all the movement of OF in the High Minors (Benson, Tosoni, Clete Thomas, Mastroianni) he will likely stay put until they find a definite spot for all the moving spots up in AA/AAA.
Keep an eye on Arcia as he continues to hit and will hopefully move up quickly.

Oswaldo Arcia was announced today as the Florida State League Player of the Week. His numbers for that week:
12-21 - .571 AVG
1 2B
3 HR
7 RBI
5 R
4 BB
2 SO
Good power and patience, but to Seth's point, this season thus far against LHP he is hitting .193/.258./.281 with 2 XBH. He needs to improve that and he should be well on his way to New Britain.

The day has finally come - according to Ft. Myers Miracle's tweet Oswaldo Arcia (along with former St. Paul Saint and 28 year old Daniel Sattler) have been promoted to New Britain! No game tonight for the Rock Cats, so Arcia could make his AA debut on Tuesday, June 19th!

And since this time... He has been selected for and played in the Futures Game. In the game, he went 1-2 with a double off of Jameson Taillon. He's not hitting over .300 with the Rock Cats and tonight he hit a walk-off, 3-run homer to end Game 1 of a doubleheader. He had 4 hits in the two games.

28 gms in AA vs 55 in High A but already has scored more runs (27-22) & more rbi (32-31)
Shows what a guy can do with Aaron Hicks/Chris Herrmann hitting ahead of him & Chris Collabello/Evan Bigley hitting behind.
10/36 off lefties is a great sign (.278BAve) w/.444slgg

28 gms in AA vs 55 in High A but already has scored more runs (27-22) & more rbi (32-31)
Shows what a guy can do with Aaron Hicks/Chris Herrmann hitting ahead of him & Chris Collabello/Evan Bigley hitting behind.
10/36 off lefties is a great sign (.278BAve) w/.444slgg

Ahead of Benson? As far as hitting, it looks like Arcia is and will continue to be a better hitter than Benson. I presume he is a corner guy/DH whereas Benson has the tools to be a CF, but if Arcia has the better bat I think that trumps the defense and speed that Benson offers.

We mentioned this in another thread, but Im a lil surprised looking at Arcia's positions in OF that he hasnt played LF since GCL (2gms only). He has 40gms in CF in last 3yrs....all of rest in RF
Wouldnt you want your OF prospects to play all 3 positions.
At least Benson(who many think is best defensively) has played all 3 positions.....tho only 25gms in LF in almost 600gms (425 in CF)

Think its funny that many people have Arcia as 4th/5th best prospect in organiation right now (I do also for that matter).

Oz wont get enough ABs to qualify for any of the Eastern Lg titles, but with his 51 AAgms he would currently
lead the league in BAve w/.337 (2 players at .322)
lead the league in OBP w/ .412 (Chien Hsui Chen leads in hitting & OBO @ .411)
2nd in slgg w/.556 (Readings 26yr old 1B Darin Huff @ .596....only 3 players over .500 tho)

also hitting .316/.375/.526 off lefties in 57ABs (huge weakness over first couple yrs)